User Ratings & Reviews

16 oz can from "Lifesource" Salem. $2.99 Darkest brown not quite dark with a big thick and creamy tan head. Mostly toasty malt aromas but also getting some piney hop notes. Very roasty/toasty malt taste, hops are overwhelmed and slightly grassy. Creamy burnt oats also. I like it . Nice creamy well constructed mouthfeel. WEll i thought this was an excellent beer and really enjoyed it, but for me this is a good strong porter wit a little hops. Stretching the Cascadian Dark Ale label a bit methinks. But still tasty

Appearance: dark brown hue with plenty of haze. Head poured four or five inconvenient fingers of frothy dark-tan foam, despite being nicely chilled and a relatively gentle pour. Head has a pretty strong tenacity, so that's good for the look (although annoying).

Smell: lightly roasty malt aroma with a little hint of smokiness, it seems. Hops are woody, piney, resiney; the combination kind of works for me.

Taste: some light roasty character combined with some dark fruit undertones; the hops are quite subdued for the style but I think this works. The sweetness, which is high, is supported by the fruity notes and is cut by the moderate hop bitterness and somewhat citrusy hop flavor. This is a weird one -- but I kind of like it.

Mouthfeel: despite releasing plenty of carbonation during the pour, there is plenty left to bring lots of creaminess to this beer's medium body. Good stuff.

Overall: this beer is a little big piquant to be highly drinkable, but in general I find it to be an interesting beer with some unexpected complexities.

Clear dark brown body, a little bit of visible carbonation, not much lacing. Nose is roast forward, some citrus and caramel. Taste is roasty, wee bit of chocolate, got more bitter on back end as it warmed, piney, balanced citrus sweetness. Mouthfeel in on the light side of medium, a bit sticky. OK, better than some CDAs, but a long way's from the pantheon of this emerging style, too malty, not enough hops.

This beer comes from the creator of the canquest, woodychandler. Poured from a 16 oz. can. Has a black color with a 1 inch head. Smell is of roasted malts, a hint of sweetness. Taste is hops, bitter, some malts, decent flavor. Have some water around, because this is one dry beer, I'm talking camel safari in the sahara dry. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall is a decent beer.

S: Heavily roasted to the point of slight char smell. Slightly smokey with a hint of vanilla.

T: Starts with light sweetness of chocolate and malt. Bitterness quickly rushes over the palate with bitter unsweetened cocoa, charred wood, pine resin, acidic hops and fermented leaves or tobacco. Tiny hints of floral and chlorophyll buried beneath the roastiness. Long finish with smoke and charcoal. Lots of points for the full flavor, but lost a few on the darkness.

M: Very long and dry finish and aftertaste. The charred smokiness overpowers the long finish. Surprisingly crisp and tangy, but not enough to overcome the extra heavy finish for me.

O: I asked the guy working at Uptown Market in Beaverton for a good CDA. He asked me if I've ever had too strong of a CDA, and I said no. This beer was meant as the experiment to see if an over the top CDA was too much. I really like the mix of strong roast and strong bittering together, but the roast was a tad over the top. I'd probably like another if the roast was dialed back dialing back a bit. Overall, still an interesting style.

Update: After letting the last 1/3 of this beer sit for about 90 minutes, the taste changed quite a bit; in my opinion for the better. Some of those harsh flavors mellowed and turned much sweeter. The can says "For Best Storage - Keep Refrigerated," but doesn't recommend a serving method. I recommend well above refrigerator temperatures or at least let it sit for an hour and retry if you don't like it cold.

I am CANfounded by this one! I know that msubulldog25 sent me some CANs as I passed one onto my local, in-person trader, tone77 but I scored this CAN at the Friendly Greek a few days ago. Did a review disappear into the ether? Has The CANQuest (TM) finally addled my mind to the point that I CANnot keep track? I dunno, but it is just a wee tad disCANcerting!

From the CAN: "Pint In A C[AN]"; "Cascadian Dark Ale"; "CuDA [-] A savory interplay of resinous hops that bring a piney, spicy flavor and hints of roast to this medium bodied, almost black ale [that] is similar to a srong versioned Ameri[CAN] IPA."; "na-tian [ney-sheh n] - Noun 1. We Brew Beer. That's About As Definitive As It Needs To Get".

Having forgotten what I have already learned, my Crack splashed my knuckle with a few drops of beer that simply could not be CANtained by their surrounding medium. This beer was not as active as their Blonde, but my inverted Glug still required that I back off lest I get glass overflow. I gauged it at a finger-of-a-half of dense, rocky, deep-tan head with decent retention. Color was, well, dark. Say, who turned the lights out?!? It was a deep, dark-brown allowing for light penetration only at the edges. Time once again for Bro. Woody's soapbox: Who came up with this style?!? It is the beer equivalent of Florence and Normandie in LA in 1992 - the worst intersection imaginable. I like hops and the roasty malts only get in the way of my enjoyment. For stout and porter fans, the hops get in the way of their malts. It is like the opposite of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in that "Hey, you got your roasty malts in my IPA and they DON'T taste good together!" Nose had a piney, minty hoppiness tempered (ruined?) by the additional presence of a chocolaty, smoky roastiness. Grr. Mouthfeel was (generously) medium-bodied, closer to thin, but not enough so as to be called watery. The taste had that unusual melding of minty hops tempered by deeply roasted malts and my CANdy reference was misplaced - this was more like a York Peppermint Patty, but I am not a big fan of them, either. The finish was more minty than roasty, but I still felt like I was grasping to get as much enjoyment out of it as I could. I should also mention the sticky lacing that formed as I drank through this beer. Impressive, but kind of dark for my taste.

Massive, foamy head that nearly spilled over. Had to pour the can out in increments like some kind of dark, crazy Saison. Some of those pours *did* spill over. I'm not sure why this beer is so heavily carbonated. It's out of control. Aside from that, it looks great. Very dark, not much light gets through at all, that giant head is light brown and not very dense--huge bubbles, looks like the top of a root beer float. Very neat looking beer but wouldn't mind lower carbonation just so it'd be easier to pour. Aroma is heavy coffee, piney hops, caramel, chocolate. Impressive. Thin bodied, flavor is roasty like a stout, some hops, mouthfeel is thinner than I'd like. On the CDA spectrum this is more on the stout side than the IPA side. Very roasty, piney, reminds me of a very specific beer (Rogue's Imperial Stout) but, again, a lot thinner in the mouth--almost watery, really. This is a really interesting interpretation of a newish style and all but doesn't quite come together perfectly IMHO. As a patriotic Cascadian I sincerely appreciate that they call this a Cascadian Dark Ale as opposed to a Black IPA or Hoppy Stout.

Really dark stuff in the tall goblet. Long-lasting foam coats the glass. The smell is kind of peculiar. A whiff of plastic along with an empty barrel.

Malty with dark roasted grains. A charred taste takes over. Bitter but fairly substantial malty body. Harsh and woody aftertaste. Dry and grainy. One of the prettiest beers in the glass, but I find it dank and dishwatery after a couple of glasses. From the 16 oz can bought at New Seasons Market in Portland.
4.0 2.75 3.0 3.75 3.0

A very dark brown capped with a large, dense, brown head with good retention and moderate lacing. The nose is disappointing. Metallic (stressed yeast? poor water?) notes are most noticeable, along with a mild hoppiness and pleasant roast. Hoppiness is pine-like but underwhelming. The roast character is mild too.

The palate opens with a harsh roasted grain acidity followed by a metallic mid-palate. An oily pine hop bitterness is present, but paradoxically, this also does feel a little watery, especially towards the finish. The malt profile here is confused, with roast but no chocolate/caramel sweetness to temper it, and clashing with the hop profile. Medium-light in body and moderately carbonated, this beer has a metallic, acidic and bitter finish that's disappointing. Mediocre.

Picked up a can at Belmont Station. Sorry Natian, this tastes like you've got an infection. The overzealous head was the first sign, but then the rubbery and plastic phenols. I can tell there are tasty, biting citrus hops hidden under the undesirables, along with toasted, roasty cocoa malts. But this one's a drain pour. What a shame, I bet it was delicious fresh out of the fermenter.